The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-08-07
MORMONIsM.

4
bly, traced by Bishop Butler. The relig
ious hope of future reward, or fear OF
future punishment, based upon yightor
wrong conduct, is sanctioned by the
visible course of Nature, who Furnishes
vice and rewards virtue. It is true that
hindrances intervene, and seem, for the
moment, to disprove the Christian
scheme of future punishment, and to
break the thread leading from natural
causes to natural effects; but the relig-
ious man believes, and the student of
nature is convinced bv experience, that
the inseparable tendencies of virtue and
vice will remain when the hindrances
are removed.
We have seen Christianity tri-
umph over Psganism; we have
seen purer Christianity strug'
gle into supremacy over cor
rupt Christianity; we have seen the
heresy of Galibo confessed as the truth ;
the principles of true science have
commended against and overcome mar
row religious bigotry; while the great
principles of liberty still contending,
have made mighty inroads in the do
main of despotism. Truth" says an
Eastern proverb, sis the daughter OF
Time"
Viewed in the light of analogy, is not
the ultimate triumph of Mormonism
the certain fleet of its principles and
practices2 The consciousness of right,
not merely speculative right, but of
right conduct. and the certainty that
they are the opponents of correct
theories of government, furnish the
means by which Mormons can view
their eventual triumph from their
present subsection. The truth that
characteriEes their views on questions
of freedom, and the virtue that marks
their conduct are the natural media
through which they may see
the realization of their spiritual
hopes. The Latter-day Saints know
as they have always known that
in the matter of honesty. truthfulness,
industry, virtuous conduct, charity,
unity, and, indeed, in the whole cat
alogue of virtues that render individuals
and communities finally successful,
they have averaged far above their
opponents. They have realized and
still realize that the warfare against
them has, in every instance, been
stirred up by falsehood, or urged be-
cause of willful misrepresentation of
their aims and peryersion of Constitu-
tlonal principles, a contest which every
Latter-day Saint feels to be a warfare
of an inferior morality against a su-
perior morality; which, they believe,
has developed the remarkable spectacle
of a republic, itself the offspring of the
principle of local self-government, as
suming to make and annul laws for, and
to tax community without represen-
tation. Such a contest, where both indi-
Vidual and governmental efforts
are vicious, can have but one issue.
Falsehood, moderation, prosecutions,
murder. mobs, broken pledges
and unfinished offenders, have char
acterized the attack.
Such things are not the weapons of
truth. Is it not significant to the phil
Osopher that those who have fought
have uniformly sacrificed
honesty and charity, have been com
PEELED to violate either legal or consti-
tutional principles?
1t must be an enormity, indeed. that
cannot be met on the even plain of hon
or and legality. 1.-The end justiies the
has been the convenient
sophism that both individuals and gov
erament have been compelled to resort
to in their contest against Mormonism.
The unrighteousness of the warfare
needs no further demonstration. The
adage quoted, we conceive to be the
very motto emblazoned upon the es-
cutcheon of his Satanic Majesty.
Gaze at the contest IN any light Won
choose, compare the individual merits
Of the contestants, or the methods of
attack and defense, and it appears con-
elusive that right is with the Latter
day Saint, and that Mormonism. though
will rise.